Moonlight
by V. Thomas
Summary: Moonkit was a lucky, lucky kit. Skeptical Clanmates claimed until their passing that luck had nothing to do with it, but StarClan always knew otherwise.


**This story was requested by Rainpath14* of the Warrior Cats Forum. I no longer possess the information that was given to me, but grant character credit to Rainpath14* all the same.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Warriors series.**

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Moonkit was a lucky, lucky kit. Skeptical Clanmates claimed until their passing that luck had nothing to do with it, but StarClan always knew otherwise. She was not intended to survive the harsh leafbare she was born into, but she hung on somehow. Instead, her mother was taken, along with the other kits in the litter.

Shadowflower had been an influential member of the Clan. The thick-furred black queen was Froststar's sister, and she was the fire that helped drive MistClan. Froststar had relied heavily on her littermate, and when a combination of illness and weakness after giving birth killed Shadowflower, the whole Clan felt it.

"Moonkit has slim chances," Icepaw, the medicine cat apprentice, predicted grimly when the other kits fell ill and died. Even with a foster mother, it appeared that the thin blue-gray she-cat would follow her mother's pawsteps into StarClan.

However, Moonkit's father insisted that his daughter could survive. Lakefur, faith shaken by the death of his mate and all but one of his kits, clung to the wild hope that one of his children would survive. He pleaded for Mothfire, a ginger tabby queen with three kits of her own, to adopt Moonkit, and she accepted.

Moonkit was very out of place in Mothfire's litter. The ginger tabby had given birth to ginger and white kits with a talent for trouble. Snowkit, Emberkit, and Loudkit were obnoxious, but they had good intentions when they went on escapades outside the camp.

Moonkit tried to stop them multiple times, but they didn't listen to her. The gentle blue-gray she-cat was then forced by her good conscience to tell Mothfire or Lakefur about what her adoptive littermates had done. Eventually, they stopped telling her their plans all together in order to get away with them longer.

This habit persisted into their apprenticeships, and only Goldenpaw, one of the older apprentices, kept Moonpaw from becoming cynical and lonely. Noticing the way Mothfire's kits treated herm he spent as much time with her as he spent with Duskpaw, another of the older 'paws. Lakefur also stood by his daughter, finding no faults with her. According to him, Snowpaw, Emberpaw, and Loudpaw were at fault.

When Loudpaw finally learned of Lakefur's biased conviction, he took matters into his own paws. Convinced that Moonpaw was intentionally pitting Lakefur and the other apprentices against him and his littermates, he began requesting that he train with the blue-gray she-cat. More often than not, Goldenpaw and his mentor were there too.

Moonpaw would do her best to be friendly to the bitter ginger and white tom, but he was rude and unforgiving. When they sparred, encouraged to do so by their mentors, Loudpaw was merciless. He went out of his way to try and batter her, beat her down. Their mentors, Dappleheart, Hollowsong, and Reedfoot, never quite noticed Loudpaw's unnecessary ferocity, but Goldenpaw did, and when he could, he always chose to fight on Moonpaw's side. Eventually, though, this was no longer possible, because he became Goldenheart.

"He just left you to deal with me," Loudpaw sneered once. Only once.

Angered by what the ginger and white tom was insinuating, Moonpaw began to strike back and take command, showing leadership qualities that were unexpected of her. She fiercely defended Goldenheart, knowing full well that Loudpaw was goading her on, but not particularly caring any longer.

These brutal back-and-forth sparring sessions were ended only by their warrior ceremony.

"Snowclaw, Emberflight, Loudfoot, Moonlight!" MistClan cheered brightly. The four new warriors had not received their names due to valor in a crisis; they simply passed their assessments with flying colors.

Moons passed. Conflicts were few and far between, although a scrap with "outsiders" (Moonlight's version of rogues and the like) left the Clan short a cat. Leopardpaw, a young apprentice, had been lost to the battle, but other injuries were extremely minor.

Shortly after the attack, a loner with kits stumbled upon the camp, begging for shelter. Moonlight was tempted to shun the she-cat, whose name was Arc, but found her heart softened by the little bundles of fur who faithfully followed Arc everywhere. They looked near five or six moons old.

"Their names are Sprite and Solace," the timid queen explained, wrapping her tail around them. Tawnyfeather, the headstrong deputy, politely but firmly informed Arc that, if they wanted permanent shelter, they needed the code as well as Clan names.

Tawnyfeather was the one to enforce this.

Froststar retired the next day, claiming her joints were creaky and her sight no longer as sharp as it should be. She readily relinquished her nine lives and the name "star" to Tawnyfeather. A wise tom named Windnose was appointed deputy, and Tawnystar took the oppourtunity to rename Arc, Sprite, and Solace. They became Sootfern, Stormkit, and Hailkit respectively.

"In fact," she meowed loudly, "Stormkit and Hailkit will become apprentices today! They are six moons old and ready to become part of MistClan."

Much to Moonlight's chagrin, she was named Stormpaw's mentor. Her blue eyes must have shown her displeasure, because Goldenheart promised her that it would be okay. She could shape Stormpaw into a respectable warrior. She would!

She did. To the surprise of her Clanmates and even Sootfern, she turned Stormfall into a warrior who could have easily been Clanborn. He hunted, fought, and respected the code the way most MistClan cats did from birth. His easygoing manner around the MistClan cats made them trust him. He wasn't a loner's kit anymore, thanks to Moonlight.

Moonlight herself, while pleased with her success, hoped she'd never have to train another apprentice again. She'd found the experience enlightening, but draining in all respects.

"Tawnystar, please don't name me mentor to anymore apprentices," she asked on the way to a Gathering once. Tawnystar chuckled in reply, her shoulders shaking with mirth. She didn't see why such a patient mentor would not want to mentor another apprentice. After some discussion, she finally convinced the blue-gray she-cat to take on one more. Apparently, it was for the Clan's sake.

A few moons later, in the middle of a training session with Spiderpaw, a rambunctious tabby tom, Reedfoot charged into the clearing, his fur bristling with panic. Windnose, the deputy, had been killed by a rattlesnake. Dappleheart had also been killed trying to defend him. She had clawed at the snake, turning it to ribbons, but had been bitten in the process.

Trusting Reedfoot to look after Spiderpaw, Moonlight rushed back to camp as quickly as she could, nearly flying through the thorny barrier that hid the camp, especially when the mist was thick. Cats were everywhere, wailing their fear and anguish as they collected the bodies of Windnose and Dappleheart in order to prepare them for burial. Tawnystar, out of all the cats, appeared the most shaken. Dappleheart was her sister.

Frostmoon, the former leader, urged the MistClan leader to appoint a deputy. Moonhigh would come much faster than they thought. It always crept up on the Clan in a crisis, and that night showed no promised of being different.

Tawnystar, not quite thinking straight, didn't confer with her senior warriors regarding her choice. Streaking up onto the tallest rock in the camp, she brought her Clan together with a broken yowl, and hastily named Moonlight the new deputy. Her hurried reasoning was that Moonlight had trained a loner to be a warrior, and that Moonlight had a level head. Naturally, Loudfoot didn't like this. The bulky tom felt that the deputyship should be his, although he wasn't sure why. All he could reason was that his adopted sister didn't deserve the position.

Moonlight, astonished by her new rank, floundered around for a while. She often needed Hollowsong, her old mentor, to guide her along and nullify some of the rumors about her. Some of the Clan believed that Hollowsong should have held the deputy's position, and others thought that maybe Goldenheart should have it. However, the only one to cause any trouble was Loudfoot.

When assigned to a patrol, he refused to go unless Moonlight made him the leader. He nagged her and hissed at her until she gave in, and the moment he was out of camp, he'd ruin the patrol with some mouse-brained stunt. Soon enough, Moonlight stopped assigning him to anything but taking his new apprentice, Hazelpaw, out to hunt or train. Tawnystar, when she finally recovered from her sister's death (having lost three of her remaining five lives in the meantime), noticed this and when she intervened, Loudfoot finally turned.

Angry and still holding a grudge from his apprenticeship, he attacked Tawnystar and Moonlight when he was summoned into the leader's den. The two she-cats were completely unprepared, and Tawnystar lost another life, her head slammed against the stone wall of her den. Moonlight grappled with Loudfoot for what seemed like an eternity, hissing and spitting and praying to StarClan to save her. StarClan sent Goldenheart.

The golden tom had been returning from a hunting expedition with Spiderheart when he heard the shrieking start up in Tawnystar's den. Curious and a little frightened, he charged in as soon as the cries intensified. His bravery may have saved Moonlight, and he barreled into Loudfoot just as the other tom was about to deliver a death blow.

Not sure what else to do, Goldenheart helped drive Loudfoot out of the den and into the open camp, where Moonlight soon followed him. There, Lakefur, a recent retiree, sprang out of his nest, joints creaking, to help his daughter. Loudfoot, as surrounded and outnumbered as he was, still killed him.

When Loudfoot was finally subdued by a flood of warriors and Tawnystar was back on her feet, the leader exiled him without a second thought. He'd made an attempt on her life, an attempt on his deputy's life, and had actually killed an elder. MistClan was no place for him, and he was driven out by his infuriated siblings. While he was chased out, Goldenheart was supporting Moonlight as best he could.

A couple seasons after this tragedy, Tawnystar died, killed by greencough. Moonlight, still relying heavily on Goldenheart, named Snowclaw her deputy (seeing as he had become more friendly to her since Loudfoot's banishment). Then, unsure of what StarClan was planning for her, she went to the Starstream to receive her nine lives and name. When she returned, she and Goldenheart became mates. More than a few cats whispered that it was about time, and some thought it was actually rather cute.

Eight moons after becoming leader of MistClan, Moonstar gave birth to a single golden she-cat, whom she and her mate named Heatherkit. Heatherkit was her pride and joy up until the day she died. Her death was caused by an infected wound earned fighting a rival Clan over territory that was rightfully MistClan's, and she regretted nothing in the end.


End file.
